FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1993
1993 - 1597.PDF
DEFENCE Dutch MoD ponders helicopter needs BY DOUGLAS BARR1E The Dutch Ministry of De fence (MoD) is reviewing its need for both utility and attack helicopters, examining merging the requirements. The air force had had a requirement for up to 40 attack helicopters and 17 utility helicopters. A recent defence review highlighted the need for an armed helicopter, with first delivery in 1996-7 (Flight International, 3-9 February). The defence ministry now says that as the result of a parliamentary request "...to ex amine the option of an armed utility helicopter...we are studying buying a multi purpose helicopter. We are doing a report, and will send in the results by the end of June." Industry officials close to the requirements claim that there is "a disconnect between parlia ment and the military". The latter, not surprisingly, wishes to maintain two separate re quirements. A merged require ment would rule out a dedicated anti-armour heli copter purchase. Sikorsky, with the UH-60 Black Hawk; Eurocopter, with its AS.532 Cougar; and EH Industries (EHI), offering the EH 101, are competing for the utility requirement. Merging the utility and at tack requirement could favour the Black Hawk, which has already been tested with the Rockwell Hellfire anti-tank missile, rocket pods, machine guns and cannon, using the external-stores support system. The Hughes AGM-65 Maverick is also believed to have been test-fired from a Black Hawk. The Eurocopter Cougar has also been fitted with gun and rocket pods. Merging utility and armoured requirements would almost certainly rule out the EH 101, because of its size. McDonnell Douglas has been offering the AH-64 Apache to meet the armed-helicopter re quirement. Other potential candidates include the Bell AH- 1 Cobra and the Agusta A.129. Eurocopter is believed to have offered the BO. 105 as an in terim solution, until the Tiger attack helicopter becomes available. • Ceramic-matrix composite flaps and seals feature on the nozzle USN studies afterburner for F-18 BY GUY NORRIS IN LOS ANGELES The US Navy is studying development of a more du rable and easier-to-maintain version of the F404 turbofan engine using an afterburner de signed for the F414 for its McDonnell Douglas F-18 fleet. General Electric F414 man ager of Navy integration Kevin Field says: "The Navy has been working with the 414 people about using the afterburner fea tures on the 404. We're supply ing information to them and the Navy is considering it." The concept is believed to be achievable within a short time, as the afterburner unit is one of the leading elements in the F414 development programme. The entire assembly was tested as early as February Cessna all-out to complete JPATS Cessna is working at full capacity to complete its prototype Model 526 con tender for the US joint pri mary-aircraft training system (JPATS) competition, in the hope that the fly-off date is delayed to beyond the end of the year. "The next 30 days are going to be critical," says programme manager, Jon Huffman. "We will be very, very busy, with the first fuselage being com pleted and being joined to the wing in August," he adds. The first flight is scheduled for 15 September, which is also the date planned for the maiden flight of Cessna's Cita tion X corporate jet. The prototype will be used to evaluate handling qualities, while the second aircraft, which is due to be flown in November, will be the com pany's demonstrator aircraft. Huffman realises that the company's JPATS bid is a race against time. "We're probably out of it if they [the US Air Force/Navy] want it certifi cated and flying by March 1994," he admits. "We could demonstrate it before the end of March, but that would not release us to thoroughly test the aircraft before handing it over to the air force." While Cessna's JPATS bid is at a disadvantage because of its late entry, it has also allowed it to benefit from two late changes in the competition. The call for a minimum of 75% domestic content and the capability to accommodate a vast range of pilot sizes. "We are 100% US. We can accommodate the biggest and the littlest from the 2451b [110kg], 6ft 7in [2m] man to the 1001b, 5ft lin girl," says Huffman. The 526 combines the Cita- tionjet wing, empennage, en gines and landing gear with a new, purpose-designed fuselage. The company believes that the lower cost of using many Citationjet components could be its trump-card in keeping life-cycle costs down. • 1992 and has been taken through the full-flight perform ance envelope at an altitude test site in Trenton, New Jersey. Like much of the F414, the afterburner combines many el ements of other GE engines. "The flameholder design is de rived from the F120 [GE's can didate engine for the advanced tactical-fighter competition] ...the liner and casing and vari able-exhaust nozzle came from the RM12/F404," says Field. The Navy is still evaluating GE's proposed use of an ad vanced ceramic-matrix com posite material for the secon dary flaps and seals in the divergent portion of the nozzle, he adds. The material was developed during research and develop ment of integrated high- performance turbine engine technology (IHPTET). It has been run through 6,000 after burner light-ups in a salt-laden atmosphere simulating the car rier-deck environment. With the spending uncer tainty over future US Navy and Air Force aircraft programmes, GE and McDonnell Douglas are working hard to keep the F414/F-18E/F programme as trouble-free as possible. Just over 8h of tests have been completed on the first test engine, the 001, including vibration monitoring of the single-crystal low-pressure tur bine blades. Ram-air inlet conditions, simulated at speeds in excess of Mach 1 and after burner operations, are being tested at the moment. The engine will be torn down and re-built after the completion of the first test phase at the end of July. • 40 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 23 - 29 June, 1993
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
